In Spain, police blocked the streets outside the parliament building in Madrid on the first day of a debate and vote that sparked anger over incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s offer of an amnesty for Catalan separatists in exchange for support for his candidacy for another term.
Sanchez’s Socialists (PSOE) believe he has enough support to win the vote. His candidacy for prime minister is projected to receive 179 votes in favour and 171 against in the 350-member assembly, mostly from the conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox party.
Sanchez, who has been in power since 2018, is due to speak first on a day when party leaders will outline their motives for supporting or rejecting his candidacy.
Waves of protests have erupted across Spain since the Catalan separatist amnesty deal was unveiled. Authorities say 80,000 people gathered in Madrid on Sunday, with tens of thousands also taking part in demonstrations in Granada and Seville. For almost two weeks now, thousands of people have been gathering every night outside the headquarters of the Socialist Party (POSE) in Madrid.
On Wednesday morning, there were more police than protesters outside the Spanish congress building: about 30 demonstrators gathered behind barricades near the stock exchange, waving placards accusing Sanchez of betrayal. Another 40 people gathered at the western entrance, an hour before the parliamentary session began. One young protester draped in a Spanish flag said:
We are Spaniards worried about Spain.
On Tuesday, Esteban Gonzalez Pons, deputy secretary of the conservative People’s Party, compared the amnesty deal to violations of the rule of law in Eastern European countries such as Hungary or Romania and suggested the European Union could intervene.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected an injunction by the far-right Vox party to suspend the investment vote.
After PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo failed in his bid to become prime minister in an election in July that failed to produce an outright winner, Sanchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE) has been negotiating for weeks with smaller parties to back him in an inauguration vote and on key legislation.
The draft amnesty law, agreed with Catalan separatist parties ERC and Junts, would exclude a number of offences such as terrorism or acts causing death.
